Experience
and culture are two illusive things to put into words. Even when you think you
pin either down, you’re talking about facts and circumstances that add up into
something, but don’t really define it.
They’re just incomplete parts of the whole; experience and culture.
Take,
for instance, one of my favorite “experiences” in the world: a tight basketball
game, in the final seconds, when your team finds a way to win at the buzzer . I can do my best to describe the way my heart
races, the way the blood throbs in my temples, the way I go hoarse as the arena
explodes in jubilation, the way the floor vibrates from jumping fans, and the
dizzying glee that overwhelms you while you give high-fives to anyone with open
hands. But no amount of words capture
what it really means to experience it.
You have to be there to know what it’s really like.
So too
with culture. In Tibet, wild yaks are
holy and thus killing them is a crime.
But domestic yaks are the source of nearly all meat, butter, leather,
and wool in the whole “province.” Those
are two interesting facts about Tibet. They’re parts of the culture. But they don’t tell you what it’s like the
experience Tibetan culture. Even if I
continue on, and tell you about eating with a knife as your only utensil, or
harvesting rape plants to make canola oil, or the semi-wild dogs that protect
their homes, or how you can’t sleep with your feet facing the Buddha in the
bedroom. All of these are true. But you’ll never know what it’s like to
experience Tibetan culture through merely knowing them.
So this
prompt is not quite simply answered. In
order to describe how I’ve experienced Dwellworks culture, I have to figure out
the best way to capture Dwellworks culture in words, and then pick an instance
of experiencing it, and try to describe what it actually meant to experience it;
all tasks tall.
What is
Dwellworks’ culture anyway? Is it the
way people greet you in the morning, afternoon, and evening, no matter how much
you’ve actually worked with them in the day to day? Is it the way everyone will drop just about
anything to help you out when you need a hand?
Or could it be the way we all gather for snacks a couple times each
month, and share a collective break and catch our collective breath? Or might it be, and I think it very well
could, the quality you know you’re going to get when you interact with a
Dwellworks employee. I don’t mean
quality work necessarily (though there’s plenty of that). I mean quality of character, quality of the
actual human being.
It’s
almost sinister how simple it is: Dwellworks hires people with a high degree of
cultural fit in mind. The right people
for the environment do the best job in that environment, it stands to
reason. And it works. Maybe it’s just because everyone fits in here
that everyone is so great at being an excellent individual.
Whatever
the case may be, I think that’s the best definition of Dwellworks culture- an
environment in which everyone treats everyone else with supreme respect and
dignity simply because it’s the right thing to do, and because we are all wired
to thrive in that sort of environment.
I’m
sure everyone doesn’t agree on everything at Dwellworks. Indeed, I know first-hand that that’s the
case. But there’s no amount of
disrespect or derision in disagreement.
Likewise, even as an intern, I feel like my viewpoint and opinion are
valued. A lot of internships manufacture
work for interns that could go undone and it wouldn’t make a difference. Personally, and from what I’ve seen and heard
from the other interns, that’s the opposite of how Dwellworks conducts its
internships. We’re treated like full
members of the team, even if our jobs have an end date.
This
week’s prompt asks for a single instance, but it’s hard to pick just one. I’ve been in countless meetings, discussing
everything from employee recruitment to foreign taxes, and not once have I felt
like I couldn’t contribute because I’m just an intern. There are times, in
fact, where it feels like I’m the only one who really does what I do- I
actually feel like the work I do would be missed.
I don’t
say all this to puff up our intern job descriptions, but to make a point about
how Dwellworks treats people and how the people of Dwellworks treat each other:
everyone is valued for exactly what they do.
No assignment is too small; no person’s story is worthless. I feel like I’m part of a team of people that
care about each other and the work that we all do. There’s a sense that everyone here is invaluable
to the company, and invaluable to the world.
Dwellworks
culture isn’t just about generating profits- it’s about generating an inclusive
experience that makes everyone feel important and valued. That’s no small thing. I’m glad I get to be a part of it every
single day at work.
Because
I do feel like I should pick one experience, I’ll describe one quick
thing. Last year’s legal intern, a guy I
actually went to law school with (til he graduated last semester) still comes
back for lunch every few weeks. I think
that fact says something about the culture of Dwellworks- it’s more than just a
working relationship- it’s about life and working together, even when the work
relationship ends.
There’s
probably something to all of it that ties into the idea of relocation services:
this company exists, at its most basic, to welcome people to new places and
make their transitions easier. That
spirit of hospitality permeates everything we do here. No one in the legal department ever really
talks with transferees (indeed, if we do, it’s probably a bad thing.) It isn’t “necessary” for the legal department
to be imbued with the same generous hospitality as the destination services
team. But it is. All of Dwellworks
is. Mistake, strategy, or coincidence
has created a culture here that is, in a word, irresistible.
-Zack
